A New Road
by Sapphire1
Summary: In a world without International Rescue, Brains receives an offer he can't refuse. Sequel to 'Fork In The Road' - COMPLETE. Let me know what you think, I do crave feedback.
1. Part 1

A New Road

By Sapphire

A sequel to 'Fork in the Road' – if you haven't read it, you might not be able to make any sense of that story here. But then, even if you have read it, you might not be able to make any sense of the story, either ;)

There will be three parts.

Disclaimer: Thunderbirds is still not mine. This universe however is (oh, wow, I never owned a universe before). I'm not 100 sure if Hiram Hackenbacker is really Brains' name. In the TV show it was used as an alias, but for convenience sake I used it for the story. 

Part 1

Dr. Hiram Hackenbacker, Brains to the few friends he used to have, looked at the piece of paper in his hands, but the numbers on it didn't changed. Sighing deeply, he placed the paper back on the work desk. He took his blue rimmed glasses off, then folded his arms and laid his head on top of them.

It was over.

His dream, his hope.

Over.

For the last five years he had worked hard, spending evenings and weekends on designing and building his machines, only to find nobody willing to buy them. Too expensive, most said. Too restricted in their application said the others. And then there were those who said that the things he built wouldn't work anyway.

He had put every cent he had in his work and now he was broke. No bank was willing to give him any more money, and friends ... he had disappointed too many people to claim to have any left. His house, his company, his life. All gone.

He knew that if he had been willing to work for the government, building their damn weapons, he would have had no problems finding a job. There had been enough offers after he left university at the young age of twenty-three, already with a doctor title in his pocket. But he had not wanted to build something that would kill people, but something to save them.

He had started working in the free industry, only to discover that even there they had tried to take his dreams away and find more sinister applications for his designs.

Founding his own company had seemed to be the only solution and Hackenbacker Rescue Equipments was born. But without the funding and the resources of a larger company, he couldn't build as effective as he would have liked. He had spent too much money up front and had then been unable to pay the loans back in time. The interests were eating him up. Heavy hearted he had sold off his patents, but even that had only be a temporary band-aid.

And now he had it black on white.

By next week he would have nothing left.

"Brains." There was a call from the upstairs office and he looked up. It was Nancy Millers, his secretary/accountant. Brains didn't know why she was still here. He hadn't been able to pay her any salary for the last three months, but she still came in every morning like clockwork, helping him to search for potential buyers, for any way to get out of that quagmire his life has become.

'Don't worry,' she had said. 'I have some money left from my aunt's inheritance. We'll find a way out of this. I trust you.'

Another one he had disappointed.

"Brains," she said, "there's a call for you."

Brains considered ignoring it. Likely it was just another bank asking for their money back.

Nancy noticed his hesitation. "I think you should take this one."

Brains sighed once again then got up. "All right."

He walked up the stairs to the tiny office off the floor from the warehouse he had rented and picked up the handle.

"Hiram H-h-hackenbacker," he said.

"Dr. Hackenbacker, here's Jeff Tracy," a deep, cultured voice said on the other end.

Brains didn't recognize the name. Tracy was a fairly common name but he was sure that none of the bank managers who had deigned to call him the last couple of months was named 'Tracy'.

"W-w-what can I do for you?" Brains asked carefully, hiding his confusion behind the polite phrase.

There was a soft chuckle on the other end. "I believe there is something I can do for you, Dr. Hackenbacker."

For a moment, Brains was taken aback, but then he realized that there was only one explanation. Nancy must have slipped up and this call was nothing but a telemarketing ploy. He looked up at his secretary who had followed him into the office and frowned.

"I-I-I don't buy anything."

There was silence for a moment and Brains thought that he had fingered the man correctly. But then the voice spoke up again, sounding more serious now.

"Dr. Hackenbacker, I don't want to sell you anything. I want to offer you a job."

A job offer? He had been looking for a new job for weeks now, knowing that this was the only chance he had to ever pay off his debts. But with his record and his very well know aversion to allow his inventions out of his control, nobody had been willing to touch him with a ten-foot pole. The rejection letters filled a large box downstairs to the point of overflowing. He had fantasized about using them to burn down the building, but of course he would never seriously do something like this.

"W-w-what kind of j-j-job?" he asked carefully.

"I'm working on a little project and think your input would be invaluable."

The man sounded sincere, but Hackenbacker was still reluctant. He wished he'd had a vid-phone to see the other man's face, but in his effort to save money, he had gone with the bare necessity for his office equipment.

"How about we meet face to face, Dr. Hackenbacker."

Damn, he needed the money. Any money.

Meeting this Mr. Tracy wouldn't hurt. He could take a look at whatever that 'little project' was and if he didn't like it, he still could walk away.

"W-w-where? W-w-when?"

"As soon as possible. I'll fed-ex a ticket to Los Angeles to your office within the hour. My operative will pick you up at the airport and fly you to my island."

Had Mr. Tracy just said 'my island'?

Slightly overwhelmed, Brains accepted.

tbc


	2. Part 2

A New Road

By Sapphire

Disclaimer: in part 1 (and yes, this is an AU, hence the warning that one should first read 'Fork In The Road'. Everything is explained there)

Part 2

Hiram Hackenbacker tightened his grip on his bag as he stepped off the plane in LA. The ticket – 1st class from Chicago to Los Angeles – had shown up within the promised hour. The envelope had carried the address of the Chicago office of Tracy Industries, a well know aerospace company. He actually had a rejection letter from that company in his box somewhere, as he had applied for a job as a designer. If he couldn't build rescue equipment, he might as well try to build safe air planes.

Searching the internet, he had learned that Jeff Tracy, the sole owner of Tracy Industries, indeed lived on an island in the middle of the Pacific. Though leading a fairly reclusive life away from the glitter and glamour of high society, there had been an article on him and his family just the other week. It seemed like a band of modern day pirates had tried to take over the island, but had been foiled by the timely intervention by four of Jeff Tracy's five sons. Obviously a family not to be trifled with.

Walking through the gate, he saw a dark-haired man holding up a card with his name printed on it.

He stepped up to him.

"I'm Dr. H-h-hackenbacker," he introduced himself.

The man lowered the card and smiled warmly. "Good to see you, Dr. Hackenbacker. My name is Scott. I hope you don't mind waiting a few more minutes, but I'm to pick up somebody else."

Brains was a little confused, but covered it well. "Of c-c-course, ehr, no problem."

For some reason, he had expected to be the only applicant for that special project. But then, why should he? He didn't know how big a project Jeff Tracy was planning on and how many people would be involved.

A few minutes later Scott's smile increased in wattage.

"Grandma, Tin-Tin, over here." He waved.

An old lady and a beautiful young Asian looking woman moved over.

"Scott!"

Scott gave the old lady a hug and a peck on the apple cheeks, then repeated the gesture with the young woman.

"Is everybody all right? We heard about the attack in Europe, but Jeff wouldn't allow us to come back earlier. We were so worried. What about Virgil? We heard he's been shot," the old lady said, giving her grandson a once-over.

"Everybody is okay, Grandma, don't worry. Virgil is doing just fine. We had some unexpected help, but I will tell you everything later. This is Dr. Hackenbacker," Scott introduced Brains. "He's coming with us to the island. Dr. Hackenbacker, this my grandmother, Josephine Tracy, and this lovely lady," he smiled at the other woman, "is Tin-Tin Kyrano, my father's personal assistant and a very good friend of the family."

Brains realized with a small shock that the man he had taken for a mere chauffeur, was indeed Scott Tracy, the oldest son of Jeff Tracy. What was the son of one of the richest men in the world doing chauffeur duty?

Everybody shook hands and then they headed off. Scott checked with Brains that he had no more luggage than the small bag he was carrying. Scott offered to take it but Brains refused. Not that he had anything important in the bag, but it just felt wrong to have Scott carrying one's luggage. This easy going, casually dressed man had probably more in his checking account right now than Brains had ever seen in his life. He still tried to make sense out of this weird welcoming committee.

They walked along the concourse to a door at the other end. While they were walking, Scott was asking his grandmother and the young woman how their trip to Europe had been, and Mrs. Tracy complied by telling him about the towns and places they had visited.

Through the door, the walked down a flight of stairs and arrived at a parking lot. Scott ushered them all into a limousine and took the driver's seat himself.

"We have a jet on stand-by in one of the hangars on the outside field," he explained to Brains. "One of the disadvantages of living on a remote island. We have to do a lot of flying."

Five minutes later, they arrived at the hangar and left the car in a designated spot. Brains, who had already been quite overwhelmed by the 1st class ticket and the limousine, could only gape in awe at the sleek silver plane. He knew, if he hadn't put his heart on designing rescue equipment, he would have built air planes. This plane was every designer's wet dream and he wished he could take a peek at her engines.

"The TI 2070, our latest model," Scott remarked, noticing Brains' interest. "Fastest plane on the private sector. She does Mach 2 in a bind. With her, it will only take one and a half hours to the island."

"You a-a-are also flying?" Brains couldn't stop himself from asking.

Scott smiled. "I'm an Air Force pilot, but when I have the time, I also test fly the new models we put out. My brother Virgil had a hand in designing her. So, what do you think?"

"She is b-b-beautiful," Brains said the first thing that came to his mind.

Scott's smile widened, showing off his dimples. "If you tell Virg that, you two should get along just fine."

They boarded. Scott disappeared in the cockpit while his three passengers made themselves comfortable in the luxurious cabin. Or as comfortable as somebody not used to all that opulence could make himself.

Brains was very conscious that he had stepped into a world that was very different than the one he was used to. Those people had Money with a capital 'M'. He guessed just the allowance for one of the Tracy sons would be enough to cover the running costs for his firm and have enough left to live comfortable.

So, what did Jeff Tracy want from him? What had roused Tracy's interest in him? He obviously had already good engineers working for him, and Brains knew that he hadn't done anything outstanding in the last couple of years. Besides Tracy Industries didn't build any rescue equipment he knew off. They concentrated instead on planes, trains and ships.

He wondered if he had made a mistake in coming here. Brains didn't really trust people with money and the power that came with it. What was that mysterious project Tracy had mentioned? What if he refused? With all that money, Tracy could squish him like a bug if he didn't get what he wanted.

"So, young man, what do you do for a living?" the old lady asked, interrupting his dark thoughts as they taxiing off towards the runway.

"I'm an e-e-engineer, ma'am."

"That is nice. My son and two of my grandsons are also engineers, Virgil and Alan. They're always going on about material this or design that. Not that I understand what they are talking about, really, but boys need their toys I guess."

Brains had to smile at that. The old lady sounded so proud of her offspring, just like any old woman would with her children and grandchildren. It didn't matter if said offspring was a wheat framer in Kansas or a multi-billionaire.

Take-off was smooth and soon the plane headed in Westerly direction.

tbc


	3. Part 3

A New Road

By Sapphire

Disclaimer: in part 1

Part 3

Brains was talking with Mrs. Tracy when Scott's voice came from the loudspeaker.

"We're approaching the island now. Landing is in ten minutes."

Brains turned to the window to get a look at the infamous Tracy Island. In the infinite emptiness of the ocean he discovered a bright green jewel. Crowned by a small volcano, the island was covered with jungle. At one flank of the volcano was a modern looking house with a swimming pool out front. There was a second, round house a little bit off to the side. The perfect little island paradise.

Talking with Mrs. Tracy - or 'Grandma', as she had insisted he called her – had put his mind a little at ease. Maybe her view of her son was a little bit color blinded, but from what he had told him, Jeff Tracy seemed to be a good man. He had spoken of the many charities Jeff Tracy supported and all the good things he had done in his life.

The young woman at her side seemed to be part of that as well. She had told him that her own father owed his life to Jeff Tracy and that Mr. Tracy had seen to it that she had enjoyed an excellent education, first studying engineering in Oxford, and then an additional two years studying languages at the Sorbonne in Paris. More than that, she really seemed to be part of the family, as she had more or less grown up together with the Tracy sons.

She was a strikingly beautiful woman, her oriental features only adding to that beauty. Beautiful women usually brought out the worst of Brains' stutter, but for some reason he felt really at ease around her.

Mrs. Tracy had also managed to learn quite about a bit about his life. How he had been shuffled from one foster home to another until he finally had been adopted at the age of eight by Professor Frank Hackenbacker who had been the first to discover and encourage his burning, bright mind. How, after Professor Hackenbacker's death, he had tried to leave a mark on the world as well, but how nobody had seemed to understand. He hoped he hadn't sounded to whiny, but after the last couple of months, it was difficult to project a positive image of his life.

Scott Tracy landed the plane with a subtleness that Brains almost didn't feel the touch down. He then rolled the plane to one side, next to two other planes that stood there waiting.

Also waiting were three men, two older and a younger blond one, and a woman with blond hair and brown eyes. Scott appeared out of the cockpit and opened the door. They let the women leave first. Brains was witness how the waiting welcomed them.

He wouldn't have had much problem to identify Jeff Tracy, even if he hadn't seen several pictures of him during his net search. The man who embraced Grandma Tracy was simply an older copy of Scott with graying hair. He was powerfully built, obviously fit and carried an air of authority with him that seemed to be like a second skin. The woman at his side was probably his wife, though Brains didn't think he'd seen any pictures of her anywhere. There actually had been surprisingly few pictures of the family, when he thought about it.

The calm oriental man who had stood next to him was obviously Tin-Tin's father. After hugging his daughter, he bowed to the Tracys and then moved to the back of the plane where the younger man, who also had been waiting, already had started to unload the luggage.

"Dr. Hackenbacker," Jeff held out his hand with a smile. "I'm glad you were able to come that fast. Thank you."

"Mr. Tracy." Brains returned the pressure of Tracy's hand.

Surprised, Brains found that he liked Jeff Tracy. The handshake was firm, but not overpowering, the smile warm and welcoming. He thought of himself as a good judge of character and Jeff Tracy came across as honest and warm.

He then shook hands with Mrs. Tracy, her smile as warm as that of her husband.

"How about you freshen up a little, and we can talk a little bit later. We've readied a room for you," Jeff Tracy said.

"T-t-thank you, sir, but I-I-I rather would like to k-k-know why you have flown me a-a-around half the world."

"All right. Then lets go to the house and we can talk. I'll assure you that you won't regret it."

Brains noted that Jeff Tracy simply seemed to ignore his stutter, or that he just didn't care about it, a trait he liked. Too many people had ridiculed him because it was difficult for him to form a flawless sentence. He had noticed the same thing with Scott and Grandma.

They all walked towards the house. After they reached it, the women excused themselves but Scott remained with them as they walked up a flight of stairs into a large office. The office wall was lined with six portraits, five of young men who were obviously Tracy's sons as he did recognize Scott among them, and one of the lovely woman with the warm brown eyes, Jeff Tracy's wife.

An auburn-haired, young man waited for them already. He stood up as they came in.

"Dr. Hackenbacker, this is my son Virgil. He and Scott will remain as what we have to talk about affects them as well."

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Dr. Hackenbacker," Virgil said, shaking his hand. He sounded as if he meant every word.

They sat down around a small conference table.

Jeff Tracy took a deep breath. He looked at his two sons and then at Brains.

"Dr. Hackenbacker, I have a proposition for you. Whether you take it or not, is totally up to you.

"First of, for the last two days I've taken a look at your company and I know you are in trouble. You are trying to do a good thing, so I'm telling you up front, even if you shouldn't take me up on my offer, I will pay all of your outstanding debts and even will give you a substantial contribution that will keep your business afloat for a long time."

Brains stared at Tracy, his mind suddenly blank. There, on a silver platter, Jeff Tracy offered him his salvation. And that was when he said _no_ to Tracy's offer. What was it Tracy wanted from him? His firstborn child?

"However," Jeff continued, "what I have to offer you might interest you even more. I want to start a rescue organization equipped with the best material money can buy and then some more. I have seen some of your designs, and they have impressed me, but I want to go even further. With this island as the central base, I want to build a fast and strong taskforce that will be able to help where local resources will fail. We will be committed to help anywhere we are needed, no matter where the people are or what they believe it."

Brains was enthralled. This was incredible.

"We currently plan on five vehicles, first a fast reconnaissance plane, that should be able to get everywhere in the world within one hour. Second, we want a heavy transporter, strong enough to bring any specialized equipment where we need it, but flexible enough to load anything we need quickly. We also need an underwater craft. Currently we think of just a small submarine, but maybe later we can upgrade it.

"Communication all over the world will be maintained by a small space station that can piggyback onto any satellite. To get to and fro the space station we need also a space capable ship. Better even if the space ship had a wider range, in case there is a space rescue."

"Manning those ships will be my five sons. We want this whole organization to be secret, as we would have equipment that could be used for war as well as for rescue purposes. And we'll never allow them to be used for anything but to help people."

Brains' mind started to reel with the possibilities. The scope of the project was immense. It would cost hundreds of millions just to design and build these machines Jeff Tracy proposed. But then, Tracy had money to burn. If somebody could afford it, it was him.

But why did Tracy want to do it? It didn't make sense. This was too good to be true.

Still, already Brains' brain started to come up with ideas on what the different machines had to be able to do in order to fulfill their function. All thoughts of his small little company in Chicago were out of his mind. He wanted in. Badly.

"Ehr, that sounds, eh, i-i-interesting," he said to buy time.

"I already have a couple of designs that may interest you," Tracy said, pulling out a roll of paper and spread them out at the table.

Topmost was the blue print of a slender looking rocket plane. In one corner was a list of the proposed specs and on top of the list stood a single name: THUNDERBIRD 1.

Brains' eyes flew over the blue print, soaking up the information. The engine design was fantastic, like nothing Brains had ever seen. The aerodynamics were amazing and when he saw the speed the plane was supposed to achieve he was simply stunned. He had dared to think about something like this only in his wildest dreams.

He turned to the next page, finding the design for the transport plane Tracy had mentioned. Interchangeable pods, vertical take-off and landing, an engine that seemed stronger than everything he had ever seen at a size that seemed unbelievably small. Brains quickly went through the other plans, getting more exited with everything he saw.

"W-w-where did you get those p-p-plans? They are, ehr, a-a-amazing."

He suddenly knew that whatever the answer was, he wouldn't be able to walk away from this. If they really were able to build these machines then the world would change, he knew that. Building them would be fulfilling his dreams a hundred times over. This was what he always had wanted.

Tracy exchanged a secret little smile with his sons. "Let's say, I have had some help from a source I can't disclose at the moment."

Brains did a mental step back. What if Tracy had stolen these plans? What if he wanted to help him to build these machines and then sell them to the highest bidder.

But his heart knew better. Come what may, he knew he could trust Jeff Tracy. He had come across enough people who tried to exploit him because they thought they could use him for their own gain. He had learned to trust his instincts and his instincts were telling him that Tracy was on the level.

"W-w-why me? W-w-why have you, ehr, c-c-chosen me?"

"You came highly recommended. In fact, Doctor, I know that without your help, I will not be able to pull my plan off. I need you."

Brains made up his mind. Come what may, he wanted to help Jeff Tracy.

He took a deep breath and said the words that would change his life forever.

"I-I-I am in. Ehm, I-I-I see you have a-a-already the names for the pl-pl-planes, so what do you w-w-want to call that organization of yours?"

Jeff Tracy grinned as he reached for Brains' hand and pumped it.

"I was thinking about calling it International Rescue!"

The end

_AN:__ Yes, the plans Jeff pulled out are indeed from 'our' Thunderbirds World. How they ended up with this Jeff and why they decided to block the gateway between this dimension and the IR dimension I will explain in another story. The story is pretty much planned out, but nothing has been written yet._

_The promised John story is moving slowly at the moment. It's already longer than 'Fork In The Road' and I guess I'll have to write at least three more chapters before I can wrap it up. Please be patient._


End file.
